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This module helps organize a group of postings into a publication, such as
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a newspaper, magazine or newsletter. Each publication can have multiple
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editions, ordered by publication date, volume and edition number, e.g.,
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"Daily News, March 3, 2005, volume 4, number 3."
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== CREATING AND ADMINISTERING PUBLICATIONS ==
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The epublish module deals with three objects, which can be
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created or edited using admin/epublish:
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* A "publication" could be a newsletter or magazine -- something that
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appears in multiple editions, either on a regular or sporadic basis.
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* "Editions" consist of a single edition of a publication, typically
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labeled with a dateline, volume and number. A monthly magazine, for
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example, might be labeled "November 2004, volume 3, number 11." (The
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volume and number fields are optional.) Each publication can have a
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designated "current" edition. The current edition will display in
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all places where a publication is specified but no specific edition
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number has otherwise been indicated. Each edition can be associated
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with a list of the postings for that edition. A path can also be
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entered for each edition, giving the URL to a downloadable non-HTML
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version of the edition, such as a PDF document.
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* Within each edition, content can be organized using a headlines
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"section." Headlines sections organize postings by topic using
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taxonomy terms, similar to the way that news websites such as the
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New York Times categorize their content using topics such as
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"international," "national," "sports," etc. In addition to topics
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based on taxonomy terms, two special, non-taxonomy-based topic
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groupings exist: "top stories" and "miscellaneous."
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Users with permission to administer publications can use
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"admin/epublish" to create new editions of a publication and to
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add or organize the list of nodes associated with each edition. (Each
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node appears as a separate headline in edition listings.) Weight can
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be used to control the order in which headlines appear.
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== VIEWING PUBLICATIONS ==
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A list of publications can be viewed at path "epublish". Each publication
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has a unique numeric publication ID (pid). An individual publication can be
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using the path "epublish/{pid}" where {pid} is the publication's ID number,
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or at "epublish\{name}" where {name} is the publication name. An
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individual edition can be viewed using the path "epublish/{pid}/{eid}" or
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"epublish/{name}/{eid}" where {eid} is the edition ID number. As an
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alternative to {eid}, the path can also specify editions by their volume
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and number using the syntax "v{volume}n{number}". For example, the path
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"epublish/Monthly%20News/v3n14" would show volume 3, number 14 of the
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publication named "Monthly News." Or, the path "epublish/4/v3" would
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list all editions of volume 3 of the publication with {pid} 4.
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The path "epublish/{pid}/current" specifies a publication's current
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edition.
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== VIEWING LATEST HEADLINES ==
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In addition to displaying postings that have been collected into specific
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editions of a publication, you can also view a list of the most recent
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postings in each topic section at "epublish/headlines/{sid}" where
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{sid} is a numeric section ID. "Topics" use taxonomy terms to organize
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content according to the following rules:
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* When editing the topics in each section, you can set an "automatically-
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included headlines limit" specifying the maximum number of headlines that
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should be included for that topic and also set a time frame that limits
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the search. For example, a time frame of "30 days" means that postings
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older than that will be ignored. You can also specify which node types
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are eligible for inclusion.
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* Most topics refer to a taxonomy term and all of its descendants. For
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example, a taxonomy might include the term "music," with child terms
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"rock," "classical," "jazz." Nodes that have been tagged with one or
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more of these terms would be included in the topic "music."
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* In addition, there are two special topics, named "top stories" and
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"miscellaneous," which do not filter for taxonomy terms at all. "Top
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stories" are taken from stories that have been marked as "sticky at
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top of lists". The "miscellaneous" topic appears at the bottom of
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each section. (If, however, you set its "automatically-included
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headlines limit" to zero, no miscellanous headlines will be
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displayed.)
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== PUBLICATIONS AND HEADLINES BLOCKS ==
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The epublish module creates a sidebar block for each section, as
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well as a "epublish" block that lists all publications. To make
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blocks visible on your pages, use "admin/blocks".
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== CUSTOMIZING LAYOUTS ==
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The epublish module comes with several standard "layouts" that
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make it possible to customize the layout of publication pages. The
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"node views," "one- and two-column" and "regular" layouts are
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different page layouts for displaying nodes from a single edition.
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The "simple list of headlines only" layout is used on pages that
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list multiple editions of a publication.
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The epublish directory includes a file "epublish.css" with
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some sample CSS style tags written to work with the module's
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standard layouts. You can add those tags to your existing Drupal
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theme, or write your own CSS tags to produce a different style.
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You can use "admin/settings/epublish" to select a headlines
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*layout* and *section* that apply to all publications and their
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editions. If you check the "custom layouts" or "custom sections"
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boxes, individual publications and editions can also be assigned
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their own separate layouts and sections that override the global
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settings, according to the following order of precedence:
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=== Section selection ===
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* If the _edition_ specifies a custom section, it takes precedence.
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* Otherwise, if the _publication_ specifies a custom section, it
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takes precedence.
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* Otherwise, the globally-specified section is used.
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=== Layout selection ===
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* If the _section_ specifies a custom layout, it takes precedence.
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* Otherwise, if the _edition_ specifies a custom layout, it
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takes precedence.
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* Otherwise, if the _publication_ specifies a custom layout, it
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takes precedence.
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* Otherwise, the globally-specified layout is used.
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The ability to customize layouts and sections provides considerable
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flexibility for design purposes, but it can can also make
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administration of publications more complicated. Most users will probably
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want to leave the "custom layouts" option turned off.
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== CREATING ADDITIONAL LAYOUTS ==
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Existing layouts are also themeable, and additional layouts can be added
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as needed.
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To create a new layout, add a file to the "modules/epublish" directory
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with the filename layout_{name}.inc, where {name} is the name of the new
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layout. The file should begin by setting two variables:
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* $description = a short description of the layout. (This description will
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appear in pulldown menus generated by form_select).
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* $context = the context in which the layout will be used. Currently two
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contexts are in use: "page" and "list". "Page" layouts are used to
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produce HTML that is intended to appear by itself in the main content
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column of a Drupal page. "List" layouts are used to produce HTML that
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is intended to appear as a simple listing of node titles within a
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broader listing of multiple editions of a publication.
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The layout file also needs to define a function
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theme_epublish_layout{name}($topics, params=NULL) {
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...some code...
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return $output;
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}
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where {name} is the name of the layout, $topics is an array of "topic"
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objects, and $params is an optional associative array of additional
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parameters. (This exists so the function can be themed to handle
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whatever values a theme designer wants passed into the layout.)
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Each "topic" object in the $topics array contains the following
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attributes:
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$topic->tid = a numeric topic ID. The values 0 and -1 correspond to
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"miscellaneous" and "top stories," respectively. All
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other values correspond to a taxonomy term with the
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same numeric term ID.
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$topic->name = the topic name
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$topic->nodes = an array of node IDs for each article associated with
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the topic
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Typically, the "theme_epublish_layout{name}" function iterates
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through the list of topics, using logic such as the following:
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foreach ($topics as $topic) {
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$output .= (do something with $topic->name);
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foreach ($topic->nodes as $nid) {
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$node = node_load(array('nid' => $nid));
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$output .= (do something with $node);
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}
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}
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